As will be discussed, the present invention provides a jewelry box, as described above, incorporating a music generating mechanism that is activated and deactivated by the opening and closing of the jewelry box. In this regard, the prior art has long provided finely crafted music boxes in which a box having base and lid portions is provided with a spring driven mechanism to generate an audibly perceivable melody. The mechanism of such a music box is normally located within a compartment in the base portion and is activated and deactivated by a depressible plunger extending from an aperture in the base portion. When the lid portion is fitted over the base portion, the plunger is depressed by the lid portion to deactivate the mechanism; and when the lid portion is removed, the plunger freely extends to activate the mechanism so that the melody may be heard.
More recently, the prior art has provided musical greeting cards that contain inexpensive, miniature electronic mechanisms to generate audibly perceivable, musical tones. Such mechanisms include circuitry for generating a signal for producing a melody, a small nickel cadmium battery for powering the circuitry, a miniature acoustical speaker responsive to the signal for producing the melody, and a switch to activate and deactivate the electronic circuitry.
In such musical greeting cards, the electronic circuitry, battery, switch, and speaker are enclosed within one of the leaves of the card. The switch includes a spring loaded contact set that is separated by an insulative strip having an aperture. The insulative strip extends from an opposite leaf of the card, such that, when the card is opened, the insulative strip slides between the contacts until the aperture is positioned between the contacts to allow the switch to close and thereby actuate the electronic circuitry.
In both music boxes incorporating spring driven mechanical mechanisms and musical greeting cards employing miniature electronic circuitry, each mechanism or circuit is capable of producing a single melody. The only way to change the melody is to replace the mechanism or the circuit with another mechanism or circuit capable of producing a new melody.
Problems exist in adapting the prior art, as discussed above, to conventional jewelry box designs. Although, in conventional jewelry box designs, there exists a space between the interior of each of the sections and the liners associated with the sections, in which a prior art music generating mechanism could be contained, an unsightly aperture would have to be provided in at least one of the liners. For instance, an aperture in one of the liners would be required for the plunger of a spring driven music generating mechanism; and possibly an aperture in each of the liners would be required to allow the strip of a greeting card type electronic music generating mechanism to slide between the sections. Another problem relates to the fact that jewelry is often given as a gift to mark special occasions. Since, as mentioned above, the only way to change the melody of prior art music generating mechanisms is by replacement, a separate line of boxes would be needed to produce a melody appropriate to each occasion. For instance, a line of boxes would have to be produced to play wedding marches for engagement gift, another line of boxes would have to be produced to play birthday marches for birthday gifts, etc. The separate production of each line of boxes would increase the unit cost of the boxes over conventional jewelry boxes because of the increased assembly costs in adding the music generating mechanism to each box and the allocation of separate lines of production to produce separate lines of jewelry boxes, each capable of playing music appropriate to specific gift giving occasions, even though the boxes, except for the music generating mechanism, would be identical.